Looking across the dimly lit chapel, senior Ary Rodriguez steps up to the podium to share her story of encountering and witnessing her Catholic faith in front of students and faculty during a Summit Night. 

Starting this year, Summit Nights are held monthly for the community and include time for adoration, prayer, and fellowship, along with opportunities for students to gain faith-based leadership experience. 

“It gives you the chance to open up a conversation with God with music and prayers and do it together with other people so you don’t feel alone at any point,” Rodriguez said. “ I was nervous because parts of my talk carry a lot of weight in who I am and being vulnerable is definitely not an easy thing to do, but Ms. Moylan was very supportive.” 

Assistant campus minister Kayla Moylan asked Rodriguez to give a talk after noticing her aptitude for sharing about her faith life and frequent appearances at past Summit Nights. Talk topics range from increasing faith involvement to finding God in the small things. 

“I was excited to hear her witness and was proud of her for sharing a story of how the Lord had helped her through a hard time she had in the past,” Moylan said. “Students are important for other students; when a student says yes to Jesus and what He wants for them, that inspires others to do the same.” 

Junior Joshua Collins is also preparing to be a faith leader after being selected to lead his class at next year’s Kairos retreat. Kairos is typically only for seniors, aside from six juniors who are chosen to be the first leaders during their senior year. Moylan helps to choose the next generation of leaders by looking for traits like initiative, determination, and accountability. 

“I am definitely very honored because I know that there are a lot of kids in our grade who could have been chosen,” Collins said. “But I am very excited to be a leader next year and go on Kairos this year.” 

According to Moylan, students are becoming more comfortable entering into faith-based leadership because they see the impact it has on other students who value its importance. 

“I think Miege has created an environment where students feel more comfortable and supported in stepping up to lead, show off their faith and be active in it,” Rodriguez said. “I think it shows a lot about the impact we have on each other, the support we give, and that at the end of the day, we feel like a family.”